


phil’s over-tired and a little bit wine drunk

by DontForgetToPanic



Series: what's in a family [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Civil Unions, Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, Marriage Proposal, because this takes place in 2012, some eggplant were harmed in the making of this fic, well technically domestic partnership proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 16:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13368582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontForgetToPanic/pseuds/DontForgetToPanic
Summary: So Phil, ridiculous, stubborn, anxious Phil, decides now’s as good of a time as any to be brave.“Well, there’s always civil partnerships.”*~*(can be read as a stand-alone or as part of a series)





	phil’s over-tired and a little bit wine drunk

**Author's Note:**

> so I was working on the next chapter of What's Left Unspoken and I meant to include a one paragraph flashback proposal scene. As you can tell, I accidentally went overboard and wrote upwards of 1,000 words of gratuitous backstory, and since I can't figure out how to edit it down enough I'm throwing it all here as a prequel, but you don't need to have read my other fic to read this one.

It happened on a rather unremarkable Wednesday night in 2012 when they were still living in their Manchester apartment… an apartment that, on that particular day, smelled like the burnt remnants of sautéed eggplant (probably because Phil recently overcooked some eggplant, but who knows?). Dan was playing a PC game at their small dining table while across the room Phil sat on the floor regretting his life choices.

Phil knows the ridiculous amount of paperwork spread on the floor around him is his fault seeing how Dan and their accountant offered to help multiple times, but for some reason Phil decided their _finances_ will be the focus of his stubborn self-sufficiency, even if he has to google “what is APR” to do so. In theory it shouldn’t be too hard, his father used to do their taxes and balance the checkbook all the time _(a man should know how to do these things, son)_. Phil might not know how to use a power drill despite his father’s insistence but come on, the accountant Phil and Dan just hired made everything super easy, Phil shouldn’t have too much trouble filling out some simple paperwork.

In hindsight, applications for a private limited company, a joint bank account to cover their gaming channel, and joint endorsement deals tends to be a little more complicated than balancing a checkbook. 

Damn, all this plus the stress of their London apartment hunting is horrible—oh shit, is this what being an adult feels like?

“I hate being an adult.”

Dan doesn’t respond to Phil’s complaints, which isn’t surprising considering that he’s been yelling into his headset for the past 30 minutes. Phil knows Dan’s basically dead to the world whenever the words “Guild Wars” and “raid” are uttered in the same sentence.

“Applying for a loan together is fucking awful, why did we think this would be a good idea?”

Dan responds by mumbling _shit, we probably should’ve brought an elementalist_ into his headset.

Phil sighs and leans back so his back is resting against the couch. Staring up at the ceiling, he knows he’s making this all more confusing than it has to be… but there’s so many papers it’s overwhelming, and there’s even more stuff because Dan and Phil don’t have an LLP or whatever together and no one seems to even understand what YouTube is so on paper it doesn’t make sense why they’re not doing all this stuff individually, and not to mention apartment hunting, it’s all just—

“Damn it, this would be so much easier if we were just married.”

“We’re too gay, the government hasn’t decided if we deserve to yet.”

Phil laughs because yeah, that’s right, how could he forget with all the “sanctity of marriage” rhetoric getting thrown around everywhere?

Phil stops laughing when he realizes that last voice definitely didn’t belong to him.

His head snaps to the side to see that Dan’s focused on his laptop, but he still knows it was Dan who responded because he’s smiling that soft, unguarded smile usually reserved for Phil.

Just for Phil.  

“It’s Adam and Eve, don’t you know. Steve is just a dirty homewrecker who needs to gtfo,” Dan continues, and if he wasn’t so terrified over the fact that apparently Dan’s been able to hear the whole time Phil would be impressed… how is Dan able to keep a conversation while still moving his fingers impossibly fast across the keyboard? And god those fingers are so beautiful, especially when they’re—

Snap out of it, there’s more important things at hand.

More important things like the fact that Phil’s over-tired and a little bit wine drunk, a combination resulting in an inhibited and artificially brave Phil, and with the topic of marriage actually out there he realizes maybe he wasn’t joking like Dan assumed.

See, unlike regular emotionally-stunted Phil, wine-drunk Phil can admit that he’s wanted to propose since they moved in together, that he doesn’t care if they’ve only been together for a few years, that they are in an unstable point in their career. Phil knows there’s a million reasons why they should wait, but maybe he’s ready to admit all those reasons are stupid because what’s the point in waiting when he knows they’re going to spend the rest of their lives together anyway?

So Phil, ridiculous, stubborn, anxious Phil, decides now’s as good of a time as any to be brave.

“Well, there’s always civil partnerships.”

Okay, that didn’t come out as confident as he hoped.

It must have sounded confident enough, though, because Dan suddenly pauses, fingers finally freezing on the keyboard long enough for his character on the screen to be killed by some weird fire crab looking thing. He hasn’t looked over yet, but once he does Phil quickly looks down and picks up a random piece of paper (something about company shares… wait, there’s shares now?). The sound of Dan’s headphones being placed on the table echoes across the room, but Phil doesn’t look up until he realizes Dan’s sat mirroring him, their backs against the couch and sides pressed against each other from their shoulders down to their legs.

Dan reaches over and runs a finger over the dried stain on Phil’s sleep shirt (a memento of the tikka masala they ordered to replace the meal Phil burnt because _the stove’s totally broken, Dan_ ) _._

_(“Of course, love, that stovetop’s always had it out for you.”)_

He stays silent long enough for Phil to muster up some courage to say something romantic and profound, something like. . .

“You died,” Phil blurts out. Internally, he cringes. 

Dan’s confused until Phil points at the laptop where he did, indeed, die. Dan shrugs in response.

“The loot probably sucked anyway.”

They fall into silence after that, something Phil can tell Dan’s doing on purpose because they both know Phil will start babbling if you wait long enough. As expected, it takes less than a minute for Phil to start talking.

“It’s not just this stuff, although it really would make everything easier, but a civil partnership would make dealing with money issues _so_ much easier. And remember when you were in the hospital? It was hours before they could tell me anything about how you were doing and stuff, which wouldn’t happen if we were partners, and not to mention the amazing tax exemptions—”

The second Phil mentions taxes Dan bursts into laughter. For a moment Phil’s throat closes up and his heart sinks, but then Phil meets his eyes and sees that _look_ Dan sometimes wears, a look able to express a million feelings at once, things that when added together say ‘I love you.’

“I can’t believe you’re citing tax benefits as a reason to propose,” Dan smiles. He reaches over to link their fingers to say everything he can’t quite voice aloud, and suddenly Phil’s smiling wide enough to match Dan. 

“They’re some really great benefits,” Phil replies, unsure of what else to say, too distracted by how his heart’s pounding in a way that’s both hopeful and giddy.  

“Well, I think you’ve convinced me, those benefits seem pretty sweet.” Dan lightly squeezes Phil’s hand. Does that. . . is Dan. . .

“Yeah?” Phil asks, hoping Dan would know what he means.

“Yeah,” Dan nods, and yes, Dan knows exactly what Phil means. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! (comments are super appreciated I'd love to hear your thoughts, even if just to suggest prompts for future fics or fawn over D&P's adorable-ness in general)
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr if you want <https://dontforgettopanic.tumblr.com/>


End file.
